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Which way to food security? Four plausible futures for East Africa

Submitted by Vanessa on 26th April 2013
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Four scenarios for East African food security in a changing climate. Illustratio

By Joost Vervoort

What does the future hold for food security in East Africa? How do uncertain future socio-economic developments, such as changes in the degree of regional collaboration or changes in policies oriented to rural development, change East Africa’s capacity for climate adaptation and mitigation? 

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has explored how different political and socio-economic futures for East Africa may affect food security and environmental change in the region, and how this may affect the region’s vulnerability to future climate change. These futures have been captured in four scenarios, developed and used by stakeholders from governments, civil society, the private sector, academia and the media in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi.

WATCH: How scenarios are developed with regional partners

 

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In Senegal, farmers use forecasts to combat climate risks

Submitted by Vanessa on 15th April 2013
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by Vanessa Meadu and Cecilia Schubert

Knowledge is power when it comes fighting hunger, food insecurity and climate injustice. This is one of the core premises at the Hunger, Nutrition, Climate Justice conference which kicks off today in Dublin, Ireland. As one of the conference co-organisers, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) wants to showcase how scientific and indigenous knowledge are being mobilised for positive change.

In Senegal, CCAFS and partners including the Senegalese National Meteorological Agency, the Agriculture Extension Service, and many farmers groups, have developed an innovative and exciting approach to reduce the risks that farmers face as the climate becomes more and more variable: put climate information into farmers hands. Farmers have been involved in every step of the way, helping meteorologists and other specialists package and communicate the information in a way that is truly useful.

LEARN MORE

Download the Case Study

Blog story: Putting climate forecasts into farmers' hands, 25 July 2011

Blog story: Following up on last year’s climate forecast workshop – what happened next?  27 February 2012

Working paper: Delivery models for climate information in East and West Africa

Working paper: Investigating climate information services through a gendered lens

The CCAFS team is reporting live from the Hunger, Nutrition, Climate Justice conference in Dublin from 15-16 April 2013. Watch live webcasts at www.eu2013.ie and follow updates on the CCAFS blog. Engage with us on twitter @cgiarclimate using #HNCJ.

Rural communities get 'hands-on' with climate adaptation planning

Submitted by Vanessa on 8th May 2012
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Asking farmers what really matters to them helps frame a discussion about climat

by Chase Sova

Understanding the cost associated with climate change adaptation interventions in agriculture is important for mobilizing support and providing timely resources to improve resilience and adaptive capacities of small scale producers.  In the latest CGIAR Climate working paper, Community-Based Adaptation Costing: An integrated framework for the participatory costing of community-based adaptations to climate change in agriculture (PDF), we see that the economic analysis of climate interventions is more than a game of numbers.  Read more »

Connecting the dots: youths, climate adaptation and indigenous knowledge

Submitted by Vanessa on 2nd May 2012
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It's time to start considering a youth-centred approach to climate adaptation in

by Maxwell Mkondiwa, reporting from the 6th Community Based Adaptation Conference in Vietnam

What is a community? Practitioners often implemented "community" development projects based on their perception of a community or village as a unified unit consisting of various individuals who share various common resources and institutions. However, this concept of community was challenged during the Sixth International Conference on Community Based Adaptation (CBA6) held in Hanoi, Vietnam from 16th to 22nd April 2012 as participants called for realistic assumptions when reporting the achievements of various adaptation projects. Participants acknowledged that while we need simple ways to consider community-based adaptation to climate change, we also need to understand the power relations, statuses and structure within communities. Thus a disaggregation of this so called “community” is necessary.  While a community may also entail a community of practice,  indigenous communities should also be understood as a special case in all CBA work. Read more »

CCAFS scenarios engage regions to plan for uncertain futures

Submitted by Joost on 24th February 2012
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Developing and using scenarios helps reveal key issues for future food security

by Joost Vervoort 

The need for strategic, concerted action for improved food security, environments and livelihoods in the developing world is a major challenge. We live in a time when changing conditions and risks associated with climate change interact with rapid political, economic and social changes in the world's vulnerable regions.

Attempts to predict future changes in such complex, rapidly changing conditions are extremely difficult if not impossible. Illusions of predictability are potentially dangerous. Still, governments and non-state actors alike must think and act strategically in the face of uncertainty.

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Agricultural adaptation through local participation

Submitted by Cecilia on 12th December 2011
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Workshop in Kombewa, Kenya: Agricultural adaptation through local participation.

Written by Caitlin Corner-Dolloff, Oxford ECI. This story was originally published on Agricultureday.org.

Farmers, researchers, and government officials alike recognize that adaptation to climate change must take place now. But how can this be done most effectively? It was clear from the ARDD learning event on lessons from the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) program, funded by the Canada’s IDRC and UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), that one of the biggest challenges is the need for climate change adaptation solutions to be context specific. A one size fits all approach to policy will not work. This has led many researchers, practitioners and funders to focus on local participatory approaches to adaptation planning and building adaptive capacity. Read more »

Community-based adaptation: The missing link

Submitted by Vanessa on 30th March 2011
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Rajna of the community research group. Photo by N.A. Omolo.

Maurine Ambani of the CARE-Adaptation Learning Programme, Kenya, reports from the 5th Annual Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change Conference, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The first three days of the 5th Community Based Adaptation (CBA) Conference in Bangladesh allowed participants to visit different communities where CBA is being implemented. Community action research groups were an interesting concept that was observed in the Sirajganj district in Bangladesh. The groups are involved in developing detailed analyses of climate impacts on their daily lives.

Through their own observations, members of the community group in Baagbhaura village have noted changing rainfall patterns in their area. Over the last 10 years, they say that the number of seasons has reduced from 6 to 3; floods have become more frequent, intense and they extend over a longer duration.  Rajna, the leader of the women’s group, then went on to explain how they developed a social map to spatially locate the areas that were at risk, the most vulnerable people in those areas and the available resources. This map made it easier for the community to identify the problems they faced, probably due to the visual element. Read more »

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